[bksvol-discuss] Re: Why No Book Reviews?

  • From: "Robert Woody" <spongebob5@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2007 10:49:22 -0500

Who is Jim? I thought the head guy is called Gustavo. Isn't Open Book from Freedom Scientific. None of this seems very organized. The Stephen King book that gave me trouble is Lisey's STory, but other books do too. What is Daisy? The new software for the Braillenote says it can read Daisy. Is that the same as nimas? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Elizabeth and Burton" <thoth93@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 10:51 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Why No Book Reviews?


Jim certainly deserves the award. However, he actually won the aware for creating what later became open book and did not earn it for his bookshare creation.

We volunteers expect a good deal of the staff and of ourselves. Both staff and volunteers put a great deal into bookshare. There is always room for improvement of course. No improvement of any kind would be possible unless bookshare staff did the legal and official work needed to keep within the bounds of the copyright laws as they apply to disabled folks. I have been with bookshare almost since its founding and have been a part of its growing. Both staff and volunteers are committed to making it even better. Thank you for being a volunteer and being part of our project.

E.  volunteers think improvements can be made,
At 10:43 PM 1/5/2007, you wrote:
Dear Robert W.

When you've been on the list a while you'll find that we volunteers are on a continuum in the matter of our satisfaction or frustration with Bookshare and its staff.

I'm way way at the top of the high end of satisfaction. I'm so proud of Jim for winning the prestigious, well deserved award for his inventive contribution to human well being, bookshare being a part of that contribution.

Bookshare still feels like a huge gift, to me, both the downloading of books and the opportunity to validate. It's such a beautiful bubble I still get scared it'll burst! I remember way long ago when I heard in the TV news that Stevie wonder had a reading machine, and feeling sorry for myself because I'd never, ever have that kind of wealth to get a machine like his and I'd never be able to read the print books that I foolishly bought knowing I'd never be able to read them

Since Bookshare, not even 2 years ago yet for me, I've donated boxes of those print books to our library book sales because I've either found them in the collection or because Volunteers here at least a dozen of them, have scanned them for me and I've had the thrill of reading them as I validate so don't need to keep the print copies anymore.

Yep, I've given up on a few blotchy books, too full of scrambled dots on my braille note to puzzle out, but I've also read the equivalent of piles of great BRF files and have hundreds more waiting for me to find time to enjoy them.

To me it's as if we have a super highway through the world of books which, though it might have a few pot holes scattered about still gets us to books that weren't on the map before. It's a highway where a few years ago we didn't even have a path through the forest, where we could have bumped around pointlessly, tired, battered, hungry and frustrated because we'd finally make our way out without a single accessible book to show for our trouble.

Sometimes I think contented people aren't as motivated to
affirm their satisfaction so I'm sharing my point of view so you can see both sides of the coin. And, I've learned that those of us who express frustration on list help the system to evolve, which it has done, steadily. By the time the elements that need attention are addressed, we'll be after the staff with a new list of must have upgrades. Actually the evolution is pretty exciting and the volunteers here have ingenious ideas that would never occur to me. ,

Specifically, I'm not sure when you dropped in but if you give us the names of the books you've had trouble with, some of us may pick them up to rescan, resubmit, validate, and upload. and you'll see what good work we can do. Since you're on the list, maybe we can help you to work on a BSO copy so you can be part of the solution. I'm a slow worker, but last year I validated 4 books that were better versions of inaccurate books in the collection. I think you'll like the feeling you get when a book you've worked on is approved and pops up on the new books list.

I hope you'll have happier reading ahead.

Always with love,

Lissi

----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Woody" <spongebob5@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 9:51 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Why No Book Reviews?


It doesn't appear that anything changes on Bookshare. Do people really work there? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Elizabeth and Burton" <thoth93@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 8:40 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Why No Book Reviews?


Cindy, do remember that John and Gustavo are apparently so busy that they are having a bit of lag time with volunteers. I just wonder if we get them started on adding reviews if they will have less time to say approve books or write those helpful additions to bookshare site we all ask for describing various aspects of volunteering submitting and validating. (smile)

E.
At 08:19 PM 1/5/2007, you wrote:
When  I submitted mine recently a notice appeared
saying that it would be reviewed and added in a couple
or a few days. I'll write and ask John what's going on
with that.

Cindy

--- Elizabeth and Burton <thoth93@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> Bookshare may be not up to putting up reviews just
> now.  Sounds as if they
> have all they can handle at the moment.  They saved
> it I am sure.  They
> used to send out an automated message thanking the
> reviewer and saying it
> would be up on the site as soon as feasible.  I only
> submitted a couple of
> reviews and that was years ago.  I wonder though
> that they would stop the
> automated message.  I thought it a nice touch at the
> time.
>
> E.
> At 05:45 PM 1/5/2007, you wrote:
> >Hi,
> >I submitted a review for the hunt for red october a
> while back -- I
> >checked three months ago and it still wasn't up on
> the site. It's been
> >about a year now. smile. That's why I don't review
> anymore.
> >
> >
> >Munawar A. Bijani
>
><mailto:munawarb@xxxxxxxxx>mailto:munawarb@xxxxxxxxx
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On
> Behalf Of Robert Woody
> >Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 10:10 AM
> >To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Why No Book Reviews?
> >
> >  Why are the reviews of books always blank?  This
> feature is used a lot
> > on Amazon,
> >but not a bit on Bookshare.
>
>  To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
> bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject
> line.  To get a list of available commands, put the
> word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
>
>


Cindy

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